ASU's Morrison Institute of Public Policy has released the results of a poll showing that a solid majority, one that crosses all partisan lines, is dissatisfied with the legislature's handling of the state's budget.
In the poll, 61% of Republicans, 76% of Democrats, 67% of Independents and 68% overall disapproved or strongly disapproved of the job that the Arizona legislature has done with the state's budget.
Other highlights included:
66% (63% R, 71% D, and 62% I) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I believe the state Legislature has the wrong priorities."
52% (73% R, 29% D, and 49% I) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I believe the governor has provided good leadership in formulating state public policy."
74% (61% R, 83% D and 75% I) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "There is too much partisan conflict at the Arizona State Capitol."
67% (59% R, 71% D, and 70% I) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I would like to see more moderate candidates elected to public office."
Generally speaking, the results cited above (and not cited, due to space constraints here) favor Democrats in Arizona (though Terry Goddard is going to have to do better than split independents down the middle to have a chance to win the race for governor.)
There was one result that best illustrates the possible problem that faces Republicans this fall -
Only 36% (45% R, 20% D, and 38% I) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I am generally statisfied with the way things are going in Arizona state government."
I expected the low Democratic number on that one, but less than 1/2 of Republican respondents approved of the job that the incumbent majority has done on down on West Washington????
Maybe R candidates and officials should expand their sphere of constituent contact beyond local LD meetings and country club restaurants and golf courses (that's probably good advice in general, including for Democrats.)
No guarantees here, but numbers like those presented in the poll, if more than remotely accurate, speak to the possibility of Arizona running counter to the national trend of 2010 being a down year for Democrats.
There was also one seriously disappointing surprise in the poll -
45% (42% R, 50% D, and 44% I) agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "In times of budget crisis, the Legislature should be able to use funds protected by voter ballots."
HALF of Democrats trust the lege to appropriately handle funds from things like First Things First in times of "budget crisis"?? A larger percentage than even the Republicans?
I'll take this to mean that at least half of all Democrats don't read this blog, or Blog for Arizona, or Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion, or Democratic Diva, or Dry Heat Democrat, or....
Anyway, more poll info can be found here and here.
A Cronkite News Service story on the poll, via the Arizona Capitol Times, is here.
2 comments:
Woo hoo. I just heard this on the radio and was going to do a post about it.
pjp
It seems like this reflects a general dissatisfaction generally with incumbents. Nationally this hurts Democrats locally Republicans. But I'm wondering how this will translate come voting time. Do you think people will tend to vote Republican for Congress and then vote Democratic for state offices?
I'm guessing (although I have no idea) that people tend to vote straight ticket. They choose the party and then stick with it. I'm wondering if this is true generally, and how it will play this voting year.
It seems like such a wacky political environment these days its hard for me to predict anything.
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